Danilo Maldonado, El Sexto
On November 26th, 33-year old Cuban graffiti artist and human rights’ activist Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto (The Sixth), was arrested hours after Fidel Castro’s death was announced. He had painted graffiti on city walls including that of the Habana Libre Hotel that read “se fue” (“he’s gone”). Since his arrest, Maldonado has been beaten repeatedly by authorities, held naked in solitary confinement for several days, and had drugs added to his food. He is currently held in inhumane conditions at the Combinado del Este high security prison in Havana. According to Cubalex, a Cuban NGO denied official recognition, El Sexto’s detention is arbitrary and illegal, as painting graffiti constitutes an infraction calling for just a $100 to $300 Cuban peso fine.

Renown U.S. human rights’ lawyer Kimberley Motley flew to Havana to offer legal assistance to Maldonado, but was detained December 16th with two Cuba activists, punk rock artist Gorki Aguila and Luis Alberto Marino, as they prepared to hold a press conference outside the Provincial Court in Havana. Motley was interrogated and expelled from the country.

El Sexto has been arrested and imprisoned several times for his artistic expressions; he sees his graffiti as a form of protest against the Castro regime’s abuses. On Christmas Day 2014, for instance, he was detained on his way to a public park in Havana, where he planned to stage a performance titled “Rebellion in the Farm” that mocked the Castro regime by releasing two pigs he had named “Fidel” and “Raúl” for the public to catch. His envisioned exhibit melded a Cuban Christmas tradition with ideas from George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm. For this audacity, El Sexto spent ten months in prison, sleeping on the floor for months because there was no bed for him. During his imprisonment, he was selected as a 2015 winner of the Human Rights Foundation's Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent, awarded at the annual Oslo Freedom Forum.

REPRESSION OF ARTISTS IN CUBA IS LONGSTANDING AND CAN BE DEADLY
Cultural repression has persisted for almost six decades in Cuba. In a June 1961 meeting with Cuban intellectuals, Fidel Castro clearly enunciated the persisting dogma: “Within the revolution, everything; outside the revolution, nothing.” As a result, all cultural and intellectual activity in Cuba is strictly censored and many artists, writers, teachers, and intellectuals have suffered arbitrary political detentions and imprisonment as well as even death at the hands of the Castro dictatorship. We recall two emblematic cases.

Jose Ramón Guit Cruz was killed by police March 1971 in the city of Camagüey. The 16-year old
first got into trouble with the authorities for painting graffiti on city walls of his alias 'Agapito' (for Eros, the Greek god of love). He was arrested on trumped-up charges of painting anti-Castro slogans. This arrest radicalized him and he started to organize public protests. After several arrests, he was shot dead by police. At his funeral, there was a large public protest and the government sent tanks to the streets.
Four decades later, cultural repression took another young victim. On June 26, 2015, the 33-year old plastic artist Addys Alberto Calzadilla Rodríguez committed suicide in Holguin due to police harassment. He had painted the word "Fidel" with his blood before slitting his throat.

BEST WISHES IN THE NEW YEAR
We realize our mailings are the antithesis of the cheer expected for the season, however, we are very thankful for doing this meaningful work defending human rights and honoring the victims of totalitarianism. As the year comes to an end, we thank you all, our sponsors, friends, and readers, for your support and wish you many blessings in 2017. May there be peace and goodwill everywhere.

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Cuba Archive’s Truth and Memory Project documents the loss of life resulting from the Cuban
revolution and studies transitional issues of truth, memory and justice.

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